Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1887-01-24
How to Feed Stock,

The farmer should have definite object
n view when be feeds his stock. He
should settle in his mind whether he is
feeding for growth or fat, and should
then regulate accordingly the kind and
quantity of food given, Simply feeding
an animal without some definite object
in view is to waste the food or else de-
prive the animal OF something it may re-
quire, unless the farmer knows the quality
of the food given and the nutritive value
of the ingredients of which it is COM
posed.
writer on this subject has the follow
ing to say through the columns of the
Philadelphia Record:
$50 important is a knowledge of the
proper mode of feeding that it is often
possible to produce more perfect animal
from a grade than from a thoroughbred,
and Darwin expresses the opinion that
the quality of the food influences yaria-
ton in animals, and that when improve
ment is attempted by judIcious breeding
the result is largely influenced by the
mode and periods OF feeding, as also by
the quality and kinds of food used.
"a normal condition cannot be sus-
tanned in an animal except by q mixed
diet. No single article OF food used for
domestic animals can be regarded as COM
plete or containing the proper proportions
OF the necessary elements OF growth and
warmth. Certain foods, rich in nitrogen,
are required for producing flesh. These
foods are known as 'fesh-formers," and
are derived from the gluten Of grains, the
legumen of clover and from the different
forms of nitrogen in all the plants used
as food, being transformed IN the body of
the animal into flesh and to supply the
natural waste of the muscles and carti-
lagos, the surplus being impaired to the
products OF the animal, as casein in milk
or albumen in eggs from birds.
"a proper division and classification of
the foods enables the farmer to appropri-
ate the elements particularly adapted for
the accomplishment of the production of
flesh, milk, butter or fat, for while the
organic matter abouuding in nitrogen is
more suitable for fesh-forming, that
portion free from nitrogen, known as car
bO-hydrates, contain starch, sugar and
fatty oils, in order to supply the fatty
matter, while the earthly phosphates re-
pair and renew the bones.
''As the constituents of an animals
body must come from the food, it is not
best to feed the starchy substances to
young animals exclusively when growth
Is desired, which explains the cause of a
lack of thrift when straw or coarse hay
Is used, as the animal cannot eat enough
IF haf In nrda m 4
self. Nor can we expect the best results
from such grains as corn, which contains
large proportion of starch and oil with
small amount of forming m aterial ,
but when corn is combined with clover
hay the elements are more evenly divided,
yet even in the combination of the two
foods time would show that some element
might be lacking and change OF food
would be necessary.
1t is more economical to feed variety.
especially TO growing stock, which de-
mand more nitrogen and the phosphates
than do those more matured, as the first
must not only renew waste but add to the
flesh and bone, while the adult is required
only to renew waste. An adult animal,
therefore, voids the excess of nitroge-
nous material, and as a consequence the
manure from mature animal is more
valuable than that from one which has
not completed growth. An adult animal
also fattens at less cost; therefore, as
but small proportion of nitrogen is re-
qured, the mode of feeding depends upon
the age and the objects desired to be OBJ
taIned."